Cast: Jeeva, Shriya Saran, Jayaprakash, Sathyan, Ganesh Acharya
Direction: Gokul
Production: R.B.Choudary’s Super Good Films
Music: Prakash Nikki
Cinematography: N.Shanmugasundaram
Jeeva’s latest offering Rowthiram is a commercial movie portraying the eternal fight between the good and bad. The movie, true to Tamil cinema heroism, pits a single man against lot of dreadful gangsters in his pursuit to stand against injustice and atrocities against public. Debutant director Gokul’s venture revolves around a dare devil man daring to go to any extent to fight for the safety of powerless individuals.
Story Line
Shiva (Jeeva) is tuned by his grandfather (Prakash Raj) to fight against injustice without any fear. He teaches him at the age of eight to practice anger against evil forces. Shiva grows up as a brave young man with full of righteous anger (Rowthiram) against the dirty forces that spoil the entire atmosphere.
Priya (Shriya Saran), daughter of Assistant Commissionaire, is awestruck seeing this young man beating up a gang of law collage students who care a damn for law. All of them have molested a girl and created rupture in the street. When everyone remains silent spectator Shiva decides to take them on. His brave act does not only fetch him the love of a beautiful girl but also the revelry of the students, who approach gangsters to kill Shiva.
The gangsters however, are reluctant to target Shiva, as their leader Gowri is caught up in jail. They have been advised by their political patrons to keep quite till their leader is released.
Another dreaded gangster Kittu(Ganesh Acharya) is also awaiting Gowri’s returns as he has some scores to settle.
Meanwhile, Shiva’s family members are worried about his safety. They fear that his attitude to take on the evil forces would make his life unsafe. They fear that his sister’s marriage too would get affected by him. Their fear comes true when Shiva goes out on the eve of his sister’s betrothal. He gets raged seeing a girl kidnapped by some gangsters. He fights with the rowdies and redeems the girl from them. In the process he has badly hit the most powerful dada of the area. He is none other than Gowri.
Gowri is terribly hurt. He wants to take revenge. He kills Kittu, who offers support to Shiva.
Now Shiva is hunted. His family ditches him but Priya is bold enough to marry him despite the impending danger. He has only one ally: his braveness.
Script Analysis
Gokul has made a neat script that fits the bill of a commercial venture. He has avoided gimmicks and idiotic sequences. He has done his homework about the behavior of the dadas of Chennai. Some of the scenes have come out really well.
The fight in the cinema theatre, the climax fight and the market scene when Gowri intimidates Priya have been well conceived and executed.
The love affair too has been handled well and the family sequences provide some warmth amidst lot of blood and sickles.
Scenes involving Shiva’s brother in law (Sathyan) are hilarious. The action sequences are quite powerful.
Gokul has shown his command over the medium by having a firm grip on the various channels of the story.
The movie moves relatively on a slow pace post interval. Too much of branches (clashes between gangsters, police angle, family angle and the main story) deprive the script the much needed compactness. The length (2 hours and 45 minutes) could have been trimmed.
Kittu (Ganesh Acharya) is shown as a big force but when it comes to getting into act, he behaves in a foolish manner and gets killed.
The climax twist is gruesome and unwarranted.
Cast Review
Jeeva is quite competent and credible as an angry young man. He has done it in the past and has done it again with conviction. But there is nothing new to write about his performance.
Shriya adds romantic touch and a bit of glamour to the fare dominated by fists and furies.
Prakash Raj does just a small role while Jaiprakash gets a big role and makes use of it with his emphatic performance.
Ganesh Acharya looks awesome but his character has not been developed well.
Stunt master Anal Arasu is the second hero of the film. He has choreographed some astonishing fight sequences. The theatre fight in particular has come out well.
Cinematographer Shanmugasundaram is adequate in his responsibility.
Prakash Nikky’s music goes well with the mood of the film. Two songs – Goli Maaro (peppy) and Malai Mangum Neram (melody) – stand out. The theme music using Great Tamil poet Bharathiyar’s lines sounds good.
Positive Points
Stunts, execution of scenes, performances by lead actors.
Negative Points
Too lengthy, lack of newness in the story, and the climax twist.
Verdict
Rowthiram is a neat commercial film without gimmicks but the story is nothing new and the length of the movie mars its overall impact.